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Marina Candela
Marina Candela
1,607 Points

FTP Filezilla login is not working

I keep getting this error:

Error: Received TLS alert from the server: Handshake failed (40) Error: Could not connect to server

I have checked and doublechecked my cpanel login and know it's correct, so I know that is not the problem, and I tried port 21, port 22, and leaving it blank.

I also tried even making my own separate FTP user with a separate password in cpanel. That also did not work. I have no idea what to do at this point.

Brittany Brassell
Brittany Brassell
11,851 Points

Did you download the FTP client file from your host? It should be a download option under your FTP set up in Cpanel, typically next to your login. Good luck!

Sharon Smith
Sharon Smith
8,747 Points

Have you recently updated Filezilla? You may need to adjust your encryption settings. There was something wacky with a recent update that added a new encryption type & set that as the default. I ended up having to set Protocol to "FTP" and Encryption to "Only Use Plain FTP" in the "General" tab. You may also need to contact your host because a lot of them will lock your account after so many failed attempts to connect.

I can't explain all the technical points of it, but the same thing happened to me about 2 months ago. Talking with tech support wasn't much help either because they kept insisting I had a setting wrong (active rather than passive connection), despite me telling them repeatedly that I had it set exactly the way they told me. Fortunately, the host is local so I could take my laptop to their office & we hammered it out there.

1 Answer

In FileZilla when you are connecting what is your Encryption set to? It's possible that TLS is not supported so you may wish to set the encryption to Use Plain FTP, give that a try and see if that works with your correct login information.